Seattle Legal Ethics Attorney

For over 28 years, Kevin Bank has been a regulatory and administrative attorney. His practice areas are legal ethics, attorney regulation and discipline, character, and fitness.

Mr. Bank provides ethics consultations and opinions to lawyers and law firms and serves as an ethics expert in contested matters. He also consults with lawyers who are the subject of Bar complaints, or are applying to become members of the Washington State Bar Association.

From 1999 to 2018, he was an attorney with the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA), where he served as Managing Disciplinary Counsel and Assistant General Counsel. He investigated thousands of disciplinary complaints, tried cases, argued appeals and later served as counsel to the Disciplinary Board and Character and Fitness Board.

Mr. Bank entered private practice in 2019.  He has served as an ethics expert in courts throughout Washington (state and federal), consulted with numerous clients on ethics and bar matters and organized and presented CLEs on a wide variety of ethics topics.  He has represented lawyers in responding to bar complaints and during bar investigations, as well as at depositions, disciplinary and character and fitness hearings, and in appeals to the Disciplinary Board and the Washington Supreme Court.

 Mr. Bank is a member of Washington State Bar Association Committee on Professional Ethics  and served for six years on the Washington Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Advisory Roundtable.  He has served as Chair of the Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee of the American Immigration Lawyers Association Washington Chapter and was Vice-Chair of the Association’s National Ethics Committee. 

Mr. Bank began his career at a boutique law firm in Washington D.C., followed by eight years at the Federal Trade Commission, where he worked on complex consumer protection matters, litigated in administrative courts and helped draft the first regulatory guidelines for advertising environmental benefits of products.

Legal Experience and Background

Reported Cases:

In re Bar Application of Stevens, 200 Wn.2d 531 (2022)

In re Disciplinary Proceeding Against Shepard, 169 Wn.2d 697 (2010)

In re Disciplinary Proceeding Against Dornay, 160 Wn.2d 671 (2007)

In re Disciplinary Proceeding Against Greenlee, 158 Wn.2d 259 (2006)

In re Disciplinary Proceeding Against Christopher, 153 Wn.2d 669 (2005)

Professional Activities and Affiliations

Current:

Washington State Bar Associations Committee on Professional Ethics

American Immigration Lawyers Association

Past:

Washington Supreme Court Disciplinary Advisory Roundtable (Respondent Counsel representative)

American Immigration Lawyers Association National Ethics Committee (Vice Chair and member)

American Immigration Lawyers Association, Washington Chapter, Ethics and Professional Responsibility Committee (Chair)

Washington State Bar Association Lawyer Well-Being Task Force (Ad Hoc member)

National Conference of Lawyer Disciplinary Boards (Board Member)

National Organization of Bar Counsel (member and presenter)

Publications and Seminars

Mr. Bank writes and lectures frequently on ethical issues. His articles on legal ethics and consumer protection have appeared in Northwest Lawyer, Washington State Bar News, and Food and Drug Law Journal.

He speaks frequently on legal ethics and lawyer regulation at professional conferences, Continuing Legal Education seminars, and local bar associations. Recent speaking engagements have included:

“Empathy, Personal Values and the Ethical Rules: Are They Compatible?”, WSBA Solo and Small Firm Conference (2026)

“Ineffective Assistance of Counsel Claims:  How and When do they become ethical violations?”,

Criminal Justice Institute (2024)

“Overview of the Most Important Ethical Issues Facing a New Immigration Attorney,” Northwest Regional Immigration Law Conference (February 2019)

“The Anatomy of a Bar Proceeding,” AILA-WA, Annual Ethics CLE (December 2018)

“An Insider’s Guide to the Discipline System,” WSBA Solo and Small Firm Practice Section CLE (December 2018)

Education

New York University School of Law, J.D. (1987)

Columbia College, B.A. (1983)